What does it mean to become a Christian?

Christians are Made New

Becoming a Christian means being made new by God (2 Corinthians 5:7). It happens when you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9), trusting Him as the only way to God (John 14:6). When you're saved, you're filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), who breaks sin's hold on your life and produces real, visible change (Galatians 5:16).

Confess Jesus as Lord and Believe in the Resurrection

Every one of us has sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:23), and the outcome of sin is death (Romans 6:23). We can't earn our way to salvation, because salvation is a gift received by grace through faith, not a reward for good works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Romans 10:9 describes how the gift of salvation is received:

If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
-Romans 10:9-10 CSB

Key word: "and." Both halves matter. To "believe in your heart" is more than agreeing to a set of facts, it means trusting your whole life to Christ and believing wholeheartedly that He defeated death. To "confess with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' is to declare that He is the ruler of your life. When this verse was written in the first century, that confession would have cost you everything, because Caesar demanded to be called lord. Saying "Jesus is Lord" means that no one else is. Saving faith comes from a heart that trusts Jesus and a mouth that openly submits to Him as Lord.

In Christ Alone

Some people think that every religion is a different road up the same mountain, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus did not leave salvation open ended.

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

-John 14:6 CSB

This is called the exclusivity of Christ, meaning salvation is found in Jesus and in no one else. The church didn't invent this idea, Jesus said it, and the apostles preached it:

"There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved."

-Acts 4:12

Only Jesus lived a life without sin and death. Good works and religious heritage cannot save a person. Only Christ can.

Evidence of the Holy Spirit

When you put your faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you (Ephesians 1:13-14). One of the first things the Holy Spirit does is He leads us in conviction, meaning He shows us our sin for what it is and draws us to turn from it (John 16:8). That turning away from sin is called repentance. Repentance is not a one-time instance at the moment of salvation, it becomes a pattern of the Christian life (1 John 1:9).

Some people might try to reason that if grace covers sin, we might as well keep sinning, but Romans 6 addresses this directly:

What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
-Romans 6:1-2 CSB

Christians have been set free from slavery to sin (Romans 6:6, Romans 6:17-18). This does not mean that we won't ever sin again (1 John 1:8), but it does mean that evidence of our salvation is that we won't continue in unrepentant sin.

No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him.

-1 John 3:6 NASB

Sin no longer sits comfortably with a Christian. When a Christian sins, the Holy Spirit convicts, and there's grief, confession, and a desire to change.

That's why a life of of ongoing, unrepentant sin, with no conviction and no desire to turn, is a serious warning sign that a person might not be saved because the Holy Spirit isn't guiding that person.

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.

-Romans 8:9 CSB

This should lead all of us to examine ourselves honestly (2 Corinthians 13:5). If you feel the weight of your sin and long to turn from it, that conviction is a mark of the Holy Spirit working in you (Romans 2:4).

Salvation is Available to Everyone

Jesus being the only way doesn't mean that salvation is closed to anyone. God "wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). Jesus is "the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). And the promise of Romans 10 is for "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord" (Romans 10:13). People who go to hell do so because they reject the salvation that Christ freely offers (John 3:18-19).

But in order to be saved, you have to receive Him and believe (John 1:12).

"The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance."
-2 Peter 3:9 CSB

In Conclusion

Becoming a Christian means confessing Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection, and trusting Him as the only way to the Father. Salvation is received entirely by God's grace, which is received by faith. And the evidence of our faith is a new life, marked by the Holy Spirit's conviction.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!"
-2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

To become a Christian is to be made new by God. Salvation is accessible to any person. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13).